Company culture is more important now that teams are not all located in the same space due to COVID-19. Good professional relationships drive efficiency and productivity, so companies should make a special effort to maintain a positive company culture.
As a predominantly remote tech company, Tech Dynamism has developed ways to maintain our collaborative culture in a virtual environment. We proactively help our employees invest in their work relationships.
Here are some tips about the types of activities that have worked for us:
- Find group activities that everyone vocally participates in. We run regular virtual ice-breakers, where coworkers get to interact with others they don’t normally connect with. The key is having fun and getting to know each other better “outside of work”.
- Use technology. We use Slack for 80% of internal communication, and we started using a Slack app called Donut to randomly pair people up for a 30 minute virtual meeting. The goal is to talk about anything but work, and get to know the other person better. These chats are a great excuse to find out some fun and surprising facts about my coworkers.
- Make it a priority. In general, people have different reactions to team building type of activities – some may be reluctant to “waste” the time. A clear endorsement of these activities encourages employees to plan around it and make it part of their work routine. Having a consistent schedule also gives people something to look forward to, which can be a great moral booster after a long day of meetings.
We’ve adapted our remote-working practices over the years. Hope these tips help, and do reach out if you’d like to know more.
